The official broadcaster for the upcoming Asia Cup, Star Sports recently announced its host team for the mega event. The likes of Mayanti Langer, Jatin Sapru and Zainab Abbas will be among the five hosts. To note, this time both Pakistan and Sri Lanka will be hosting the marquee event this time. Meanwhile, the opening encounter will be played between Pakistan and Nepal on August 30.
As mentioned above, Pakistan will take on Nepal in the opening match of the 2023 Asia Cup in Multan. The tournament, which will be played in fifty-overs format, has six teams divided into two groups of three teams each.
Pakistan, India and Nepal are in Group A while Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka are in Group B. The tournament will follow a hybrid model with Pakistan hosting four matches across two venues and Sri Lanka hosting the remaining games. To note, the arch-rivals India and Pakistan will face each other on September 2 in Kandy.
Meanwhile, BCCI on August 21 (Monday) announced its squad for the upcoming event. The likes of Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul and even Jasprit Bumrah will be playing the 50-over format after a long haul. The above mentioned players are expected to play a crucial role in the Men in Blue success. Apart from these, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Shubman Gill will handle the responsibility in the top-order.
India squad for Asia Cup 2023: Rohit Sharma (captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Mohammed Shami, Ishan Kishan, Shardul Thakur, Axar Patel, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Prasidh Krishna. Reserve: Sanju Samson.
